Highways England has unveiled plans to construct more than 100 miles of extra lanes on the North West’s motorways with an investment of approximately £500m to ease traffic jams and slash travel times.

Under the plans, construction works on the four new smart motorway schemes are expected to commence within the next one and half years.

Smart motorways use the latest traffic monitoring technology, which enables automatic configuration of the variable speed limits on overhead electronic signs to keep traffic moving at a steady speed.

Highways England North smart motorways programme manager Mike Bull said: “Smart motorways have been proven to be effective at tackling congestion, with the smart motorway on the M62 in West Yorkshire saving commuters an average of 30 minutes each week.”

“Work will start on a three-mile stretch of the motorway near Eccles prior to extending the routes on the full nine-mile stretch of the M60 between Trafford Park and the M62 / M66 interchange.”

Contractors will start work on the first of the new routes later this year on the busy stretch of the M62 that connects the M60 at Salford with the M6 near Warrington.

Initially, work will start on a three-mile stretch of the motorway near Eccles prior to extending the routes on the full nine-mile stretch of the M60 between Trafford Park and the M62 / M66 interchange at Simister Island.

More than 200 electronic signs on this stretch of the M60 are due to be switched on later this month.

The final temporary narrow lanes on the Manchester smart motorway scheme were recently removed.

The hard shoulders on each new smart motorway route will be converted into permanent extra lanes while the new CCTV cameras will also provide 100% coverage of the routes.

Construction work is set to commence on a three-mile stretch of the M62 near junction 12 this year.

Work will start next year on a four-mile smart motorway on the M56 near Manchester Airport, as well as a ten-mile stretch of smart motorway on the part of the M6 that connects the M62 near Warrington to the M58 near Skelmersdale.

Eventually, work will commence on a new 19-mile stretch of smart motorway over the Pennines on the M62 between Rochdale and Brighouse.